privatehudson
The Ultimate Badass
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2003
- Messages
- 4,821
Would that it be just these type of threads where such remarks (in fairness not just from you - that one just stood out) appear.
Pangur Bán;11307080 said:I'm with Traitorfish. Doubtless the best, if measured with any fairness, would turn out to be some Kenyan or Irish chieftan from a thousand years ago or something.
Pangur Bán;11307080 said:If Napoleon was so great, how come he lost at Waterloo
Oh aye. If Chrurchill was such a great politician, how did he ever lose an election?
Given that Churchill managed to lose Dundee- one of the most staunchly Liberal cities in Britain, and certainly the most staunchly Liberal city in Scotland- to the Scottish Prohibition Party, of all people, what makes you so sure that he was a "great politician"?Oh aye. If Chrurchill was such a great politician, how did he ever lose an election?
Given that Churchill managed to lose Dundee- one of the most staunchly Liberal cities in Britain, and certainly the most staunchly Liberal city in Scotland- to the Scottish Prohibition Party, of all people, what makes you so sure that he was a "great politician"?
Pangur Bán;11307080 said:Alexander. No. Read between the lines in the accounts, guys like Parmenion were actually the ones behind the military decisions. I mean, a boy a great general? If it sounds fabulous, it is almost certainly is. But we as humans love our myths, particularly myths about "great men". Would Genghis Khan have been so great in charge of village x of 7th century bc Lake Van fighting and incursion from village y? Or is he so great because of the superiority inherent in Mongol soldiers vis-a-vis other Eurasians? If Napoleon was so great, how come he lost at Waterloo, and how come he led so many hundreds of thousands of Frenchies to their deaths; how come he lost, when France was far and away already the biggest and most powerful state in Europe at the time?
He lost Dundee in 1922.Personally I don't think anyone who led through the war so effectively as Churchill did could ever have won an election in a weary nation longing for peace.
He conquered it, probably.Pangur Bán;11307839 said:@PCH, we always enjoy the anachronisms of 19th century paintings, but would love to know here how the three lions of Aquitaine ended up on Brian Boru's shield?
There's literally no part of this paragraph that didn't appall me.
Pangur Bán;11307080 said:(1) Alexander. No. Read between the lines in the accounts, guys like Parmenion were actually the ones behind the military decisions. I mean, a boy a great general? If it sounds fabulous, it is almost certainly is. But we as humans love our myths, particularly myths about "great men". (2) Would Genghis Khan have been so great in charge of village x of 7th century bc Lake Van fighting and incursion from village y? (3) Or is he so great because of the superiority inherent in Mongol soldiers vis-a-vis other Eurasians? (4) If Napoleon was so great, how come he lost at Waterloo, and how come he led so many hundreds of thousands of Frenchies to their deaths; how come he lost, when France was far and away already the biggest and most powerful state in Europe at the time?